A LOVE STORY about an unemployed girl and a
man paralyzed in a freak accident doesn’t sound like
it would be much of a hit, let alone an international
best-seller. Yet from the time it was
published in 2012, Me Before You,by
Jojo Moyes,has been snapped off the
shelves by eager readers who then
passed it on to friends, and insisted they
read it. Three years later, the book has
sold more than 5 million copies around
the world.

Moyes still gets tweets and Facebook
messages daily from readers, thanking
her for the great read and asking what
happens to the characters next.

“Me Before You was based on a
real-life story,” Moyes tells The Connection from her farm in Essex, England, which she
shares with her tech-journalist husband, Charles
Arthur, three children, three horses, two cats and a
dog. “I was driving and heard a story on the radio
about a sportsman who was left quadriplegic. I
couldn’t get [his] story out of my head. But, like all
stories, the more I read into it, the more I realized
these things aren’t cut-and-dried.”

Me Before You wasn’t Moyes’ first book, although
it is her most successful. After graduating from university in 1992, she worked for 10 years as a newspaper journalist. She started writing books while on
the night shift in an effort to keep busy during the

Signed book
gıveaway

COSTCO HAS 50 copies of Jojo Moyes’

After You with signed book plates, to give
away. To enter, go to: costcoconnectionbook
giveaway.com.

NO PURCHASE, PAYMENT OR OPT-IN OF ANY KIND IS
NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS SWEEPSTAKES.
Purchase will not improve odds of winning. Sweepstakes is
sponsored by Penguin, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

Open to legal residents of the U.S. (except Puerto Rico) who
are age 18 or older at the time of entry. One entry per
household. Entries must be received before the October issue
is available online, which will happen around September 25,

2015. Winners will be randomly selected and noti;ed by mail
on or before November 1, 2015. The value of the prize is

$26.95. Void where prohibited. Winners are responsible for all
applicable federal, state and local taxes. Odds of winning
depend on the number of eligible entries received.

Employees of Costco or Penguin Random House and their
families are not eligible.

Pennie Clark Ianniciello,

Costco book buyer
Pennie’s pick

THIS MONTH’S BOOKbuyer’s pick, Me BeforeYou, by Jojo Moyes, isthe kind of book thatyou want to hand tosomeone and say,“Please read this, andthen let’s talk about itwhen you’re done.”All I’m willing to sayis that when Louisa takesa job working with a manwho is wheelchair bound,her ordinary life becomesconsiderably less plain.This novel will leave youthinking about Lou andwhether your response towhat she faces would bethe same.

And for anyone who’s
already read, recommended and discussed Me
Before You (Item #861284,
9/1), you’ll be happy to
know that the sequel,
After You (Item #1000918),
will be available on September 29.

For more book picks,see page 79.day when friends were at work. Although it startedas a personal challenge, it soon became much morethan that. She ended up writing three books, all ofwhich were rejected by publishers.

“I knew the first book wouldn’t getpublished, but it was an exercise in seeingif I could do it,” says Moyes, 45. “An agenttold me it wasn’t publishable but that Ihad a voice and should keep trying. It washarder when the second book was turneddown. When the third was rejected I wentto bed for three days. I once heard that ifyou’re a writer then you can’t not write.Three months after the last rejection, Isent three chapters to an agent and itended up becoming my first publishedbook, Sheltering Rain.”A string of books followed, each selling tens ofthousands of copies. Then Me Before You was pub-lished in the UK and the U.S., and Moyes’ careerskyrocketed.A rave review in January 2013 in TheNew York Times resulted in 12 studios contactingMoyes for the movie rights. She ended up writingthe screenplay for MGM, and the film is scheduledto be released next spring. Emilia Clarke from Gameof Thrones and Sam Claflin from the Hunger Gamesfilms will star.

Moyes was on the set for much of the filming,
often receiving early-morning calls to write or
change a few lines in that day’s scene. She enjoyed
the experience so much that she adapted her next
book, One Plus One, for the movies, and is now
working on a third screenplay.

At the end of this month, After You, the much-awaited sequel to Me Before You, will be released.
Writing a follow-up, though, wasn’t something she
had seriously considered, until one day she sat up in
bed at 5: 30 a.m., thinking, “I know what happens.”

“It was the most frightening book I have ever
written,” says Moyes about After You. “I felt expectations like never before. I had to make it good
enough to be a stand-alone book, while still injecting enough about the characters to keep existing
readers interested. Lou [the main character] is
such a dear character to me, and it’s been lovely
to go back to her. If there’s a message in
these books, it’s to be kind. I’m a great
believer in kindness, and … most of
my characters work out that that’s the
only way to be.” C